A quick stop over in Sydney on our way home and a chance to have a few beers around the rocks. Holiday is pretty much over so time to start thinking about 2006’s adventure. This German beer in the Hero of Waterloo us giving me a few ideas…- better see our friendly travel butler when we return to discuss.

The trip from Nagoya was pleasant enough, now we are back in Cairns for a quick stop over before heading to Sydney and home. Customs pulled up up at the airport coming in, they saw small cans in the suitcase and thought we were bringing in some sort of exotic food in a can. The were very surprised to find that they were mini 120ml beers. They are too lovely to drink (and not worth the effort) so they are going to be displayed in the bar.

We take a hire car from the airport and head up for a drive into the rain forest behind the city for a bit of a look. Very lush and tropical. Then head into town and find our hotel before hitting a few bars and the casino for an ale or two.

Bikkle, what can you say. Its one of the more interesting beverages we have tried. Its like drinking Clag that has been watered down a bit, in-fact it probably is Clag, it tastes and smells just like it, if its not Clag, I would hate to know what it is. Some say its a yogurt based drink, but we beg to differ.

Another of Toyota’s fantastic museums in this city. This time its pretty much a historic car museum and it features not only Toyota vehicles but some of the world’s most iconic vehicles. The huge complex was over the road from the Expo site, but only took minutes from the city because we caught the other rail company’s train. JR are major sponsor of the Expo and their train goes the long way.

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This museum is a bit of a mouth full but its pretty much what it is. It is a showcase of Toyota’s technology with hybrids, robots and lots of interesting things that may happen in the future. This museum is in Toyota City a huge suburb a few stations away from Nagoya.

We head back to Nagoya for a final few days before coming home. The guards at the station are classics, there are so many of them all with their pure white gloves. None of them seem to have any idea of whats going on they are all reactive on one another. One waves a his arm, the other one watches him then he does it and it goes down the line. They are more than a hindrance than help as they stand in the most awkward places, right where people need to walk.

We have seen a few people ask questions from them, and it seems simple stuff like is this train going to xxx and they just give a look of confusion. Its amazing the service is so super efficient with staff like this.

We took a train out to a nearly rural area of Nagoya to the Asahi brewery. It was incredible so much state of the art equipment. The highlight of the tour was the end where there were samples. As we were the only two on the tour the tour guide loved us, not that she could understand so much, so she over did it a bit with her hospitality. Lots of samples and some every awful fishy snacks, they were some kind of dried sardine treat. Lots more bows and lots more beers, a great tour!

Many of the small blocks around the brewery had rice farms, many no bigger than a suburban block.

Today we visited the Mazda head office, factory and museum in Hiroshima. The site is huge they make most of their product lines in this facility. Today we see the soon to be released new generation MX5 travelling down the assembly line, it looked pretty cool and a great evolution from the original model.

The whole manufacturing process takes place here with panels and engines made at one end and assembly at the other. The cars come out of the assembly plant and then move straight onto a ship to be sent around the world. The place is so large many of the manufacturing employees even live on site, with several high rise apartment blocks located in the grounds.

The museum was pretty cool they traced the history of the company with some beautifully restored vehicles. There was a small engineering and design display and a bit of fun for kids.

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There are characters everywhere you look. Every shop, business or service seems to have a character of some kind, it doesn’t matter if you are a furniture shop or even funeral home. Here are a few fun ones.

Hiroshima is a lot quieter and lacks the madness of Tokyo and Osaka. There is a great entertainment district and huge shopping strip. The huge American Flag flapping outside this ship seemed a strange addition, if you turn 180 degrees you can see the Peace Memorial.. eerie.

The Hiroshima Castle proved a great photo opportunity, but like most of the castles in Japan its a fake. The castle is styled on the original that was built in 1592 and destroyed in the atomic blast in 1945. This one is made of concrete and steel and was built in the late 1950’s. There is a wonderful moat around the grounds that are filled with huge coloured carp, an icon of the city. The baseball team is known as the Hiroshima Carps.

I’m usually not too keen on somber museums especially those centered around horrific events but we found this museum to be perfectly balanced and humble, the word isn’t we enjoyed but we had a sort of satisfaction in visiting it.

The museum was very understated,it did have many confronting exhibits but it displayed them in a way where you built your own thoughts and feelings instead of having them imposed on you like so many other war and conflict museums do.

The museum tried to push a positive peace agenda, asking for people to absorb the story and ensure that the world never comes to the situation again where the events of war often forces all sides to do so many dreadful things one another.